May 1, 2005 - The Rotunda Gallery presents the annual KidsArt exhibition, a celebration of art created by New York City students participating in the Gallery's education programs during the 2004-2005 school year. A unique chance to see hundreds of artworks by kids from across Brooklyn, KidsArt will be on view from May 31 to June 18, 2005. On Thursday, June 9, the exhibition is part of KidsDay, a celebration full of exciting free events for the whole family: art-making workshops, exhibition tours and special events at cultural institutions all over the Brooklyn Heights neighborhood. KidsArt and KidsDay are sponsored by Con Edison.

Curated by Meridith McNeal, Rotunda's Associate Director/Director of Education, and Hawley Hussey, Education Coordinator, KidsArt showcases outstanding, diverse projects by kids of all ages: Fifth graders from P.S. 171 in Cypress Hills have created colorful and larger than life paintings of original superheroes, based on Brooklyn artist Marie Roberts' Coney Island Sideshow Banners. At P.S. 347 in Bushwick, sixth and seventh graders have responded to the recent tsunami in Southeast Asia by creating a wave-shaped installation composed of sumi ink drawings, lighting, and haiku poetry, while students at I.S. 49 in Bushwick have designed a new map of New York by deconstructing the subway map and reassembling it, highlighting displaced communities throughout the city. Other projects range from self-portraits based on the style of Chuck Close and Frida Kahlo, to collages inspired by Romare Bearden, to sculptures, installations and murals focusing on architecture, math and language arts.

Held on the Brooklyn-Queens Day school holiday, KidsDay is co-presented by the Rotunda Gallery, the Brooklyn Heights Branch of the Brooklyn Public Library, the New York Transit Museum and the Brooklyn Historical Society. The all-day festivities include a variety of art-making workshops in the Gallery on the theme "Brooklyn Cultural Diversity" for artists of all ages, and other free events around Brooklyn Heights, ending with a cookies and juice reception, courtesy of Morgan Stanley, at 3:00 PM in the Gallery. Reservations are required for many of the KidsDay programs, and a schedule of events is available by calling 718-875-4047 ext. 11.

The ROTUNDA GALLERY, housed in an award-winning space designed by Smith-Miller + Hawkinson, showcases the work of Brooklyn artists. The ROTUNDA GALLERY’s educational programs reach 7,000 students each year with gallery visits and in-school art making projects. The ROTUNDA GALLERY is a project of the not-for-profit BRIC/Brooklyn Information & Culture, Inc..